Federal agency shortfalls delay gun dealer inspections

Dan Freedman

Updated 10:26 pm, Tuesday, April 23, 2013

WASHINGTON -- The embattled ATF is failing to inspect a majority of licensed gun dealers every three to five years because of competing priorities and a lack of investigators, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Between 2007 and 2012, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' investigators had not inspected 58 percent of firearms dealers for five years, the Justice Department's inspector general concluded.

The report also said ATF failed to track whether its workforce of 624 industry operations investigators was prioritizing inspections of "high risk'' dealers -- those located in border regions or with high numbers of sales of guns recovered after crimes.

Investigators are distinct from ATF's 2,500 special agents. Investigators do not carry guns and have no power to arrest suspects.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz noted that "insufficient investigator resources'' was a primary reason for the shortfall. A chart in the report said ATF would need 504 extra investigators -- a 45 percent increase -- to get up to speed.

Of those 504, 59 would be needed in ATF's Houston Division; 39 in the San Francisco Division; 26 in the New York Division; and 49 in the Boston Division, which has jurisdiction over Connecticut.

The inspector general said ATF had made some improvements since a 2004 DOJ-IG report concluded that firearms dealer inspections "were infrequent and of inconsistent quality, and follow-up inspections and adverse actions had been sporadic.''

But the improvements appeared to be outweighed by continuing problems.

Since 2004, the ATF's investigator workforce has grown by 22 percent to 624. But the number of licensed firearm dealers mushroomed to 123,587 in the same period -- an increase of 16 percent.

Among competing priorities that consumed investigators' time were examining qualifications of applicants for federal explosives licenses, which under law must be completed within 90 days. There are no similar time constraints for checking whether dealers are following federal firearms laws.

Gun-dealer inspections have been a backdrop in the gun debate that reached a fever pitch earlier this month when the Senate defeated an ambitious series of gun-control measures sparked by the Dec. 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

The report noted that close to 175,000 weapons at gun dealers were lost or stolen between 2004 and 2011.

The ATF closed Riverview Gun Sales, of East Windsor, in December after guns used by Adam Lanza in the Newtown shooting were traced to purchases there by Lanza's mother, Nancy.

ATF investigators found more than 500 violations, including sale of ammunition to an individual that the store employee believed to be a felon.

ATF has been a perennial target of the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups for decades. In 1994, NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre called ATF "a jack-booted group of fascists'' and "a shame and a disgrace to our country.''

The bureau has been without a Senate-confirmed director since 2006.

The nomination of current acting Director B. Todd Jones is stalled, with no confirmation hearing in sight.

During the Senate battle, the NRA blunted the push for new gun-control measures in part by arguing that the ATF should enforce laws already on the books.

But critics responded that the NRA's lobbying against ATF is the main reason the agency lacks the resources to do so.

Dan Freedman can be reached at 202-263-6400 or e-mail at dan@hearstdc.com